Friday, May 18, 2012

Tacoma Zoo Red Wolf News!!!

May 17, 2012

Red wolf pups born at Tacoma zoo will give the public a glimpse of one of the world's rarest mammals

Posted by Sandi Doughton

For nearly four decades, Washington has been the hub of a breeding program for endangered red wolves. But the public has rarely had a chance to oooh and aaah over the offpsring -- until now.One of the new pups gets a his first physical Wednesday

A litter of eight pups, born this week at the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium
in Tacoma, should begin venturing out of their den and into public view
within three to four weeks. In the meantime, the zoo hopes to provide
glimpses of the youngsters and their mom via a video feed. "It's a
remarkable opportunity for the public to connect with this species,"
said Karen Goodrowe Beck, the zoo's general curator.

A video screen grab shows Millie with some of her new pups in their den

With a wild population of about 100, red wolves are one of the rarest
mammals. Even Africa's mountain gorillas far outnumber them. The Tacoma
zoo played a key role in rescuing the wolves from extinction beginning
in the 1970s.

Once common from Texas to Pennsylvania to Florida, the animals were
hunted and trapped until all that remained was a remnant population on
the Gulf Coast. Federal biologists captured the last 17 wolves and
brought them to a breeding facility at Point Defiance Zoo's Northwest Trek Wildlife Park, in the shadow of Mount Rainier. The animals' descendants were eventually released into the wild in North Carolina's Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, the first effort in the U.S. to re-establish a species in its native habitat.

Red wolves in the wild
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service photo

Smaller than gray wolves, red wolves are known for patches of reddish
fur behind their ears and on their necks. They're often mistaken for
coyotes, with which they interbreed.

The breeding program continues behind the scenes at Northwest Trek.
Most of the animals born there now are destined for zoos that are part
of a species conservation program, said Will Waddell, Point Defiance's
red wolf program coordinator. The animals in captivity represent a
living reserve that could be tapped in case catastrophe strikes the wild
population, he explained. "We're a safety net."
To pump fresh blood into the wild population, biologists occasionally
slip newborn pups from the captive breeding programs at Northwest Trek
and other zoos into the litters of wild females, who raise them as their
own.

Pups from a breeding program at a Chicago zoo are transplanted to the wild
USFWS photo

But the litter born to the 8-year-old female named Millie won't be going
anywhere -- at least until they're grown. One of four red wolves in a
new exhibit at the Tacoma zoo, Millie gave birth to the first two pups
on Mother's Day. Then she kept going. Over the next 30 hours, she
birthed six more pups. Zoo staff examined the newborns for the first
time on Wednesday and found four males and four females.

If all the youngsters survive, it's likely that some of them will be
eventually moved to other zoos, to help boost their breeding programs,
Waddell said.

Meanwhile, the wild wolves in North Carolina are facing many of the
same threats as their gray cousins, which were reintroduced to the Rocky
Mountains starting in 1995. Several red wolves are shot every year, and
others are killed by cars. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hopes to
establish additional populations, but local residents are wary.

Smallest red wolf pup dies at Tacoma zoo

Posted by Sandi Doughton

The smallest of eight red wolf pups born at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium this week has died. Zoo officials discovered the dead female Thursday morning. The cause of death is unknown.
The pups' mother, an 8-year-old named Millie, appears to be taking
good care of her remaining seven offspring -- four males and three
females -- said Will Waddell, the zoo's Red Wolf Recovery program
coordinator.

Red wolves are one of the most endangered mammals on earth. The wild
population numbers only about 100, all living along the coast of North
Carolina. The Tacoma zoo is a key breeding facility in the ongoing
effort to save the species from extinction.
The public should be able to see the newborn pups in a few weeks, when they venture out of their den.

The film offers an abbreviated history of the relationship between wolves and people—told from the wolf’s perspective—from a time when they coexisted to an era in which people began to fear and exterminate the wolves.

The return of wolves to the northern Rocky Mountains has been called one of America’s greatest conservation stories. But wolves are facing new attacks by members of Congress who are gunning to remove Endangered Species Act protections before the species has recovered.

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Inescapably, the realization was being borne in upon my preconditioned mind that the centuries-old and universally accepted human concept of wolf character was a palpable lie... From this hour onward, I would go open-minded into the lupine world and learn to see and know the wolves, not for what they were supposed to be, but for what they actually were.

-Farley Mowat, Never Cry Wolf

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“If you look into the eyes of a wild wolf, there is something there more powerful than many humans can accept.” – Suzanne Stone